Chap. XV. MAMBARI TRADERS. 27l 



niontanus, though the country is perfectly flat, and was finely 

 marked down to the feet, as all the zebras are in these parts. 



To our first message, offering a visit of explanation to Ma- 

 nenko, we got an answer, with a basket of manioc-roots, that we 

 must remain where we were till she should visit me. Having 

 waited two days already for her, other messengers arrived with 

 orders for me to come to her. After four days of rains and 

 negotiation, I declined going at all, and proceeded up the river 

 to the small stream Makondo (lat. 13° 23' 12" S.), which enters 

 the Leeba from the east, and is between twenty and thirty yards 

 broad. 



January 1st, 1854. — We had heavy rains almost everyday; 

 indeed the rainy season had fairly set in. Baskets of the purple 

 fruit called mawa were frequently brought to us by the villagers ; 

 not for sale, but from a belief that their chiefs would be pleased 

 to hear that they had treated us well ; we gave them pieces of 

 meat in return. 



When crossing at the confluence of the Leeba and Makondo, 

 one of my men picked up a bit of a steel watch-chain of English 

 manufacture, and we were informed that this was the spot where 

 the Mambari cross in coming to Masiko. Their visits explain 

 why Sekelenke kept his tusks so carefully. These Mambari are 

 very enterprising merchants : when they mean to trade with a 

 town, they deliberately begin the affair by building huts, as if 

 they knew that little business could be transacted without a 

 liberal allowance of time for palaver. They bring Manchester 

 goods into the heart of Africa ; these cotton prints look so won- 

 derful that the Makololo could not believe them to be the work 

 of mortal hands. On questioning the Mambari they were an- 

 swered that English manufactures came out of the sea, and beads 

 were gathered on its shore. To Africans our cotton-mills are 

 fairy dreams. " How can the irons spin, weave, and print so 

 beautifully ? " Our country is like what Taprobane was to our 

 ancestors : a strange realm of light, whence came the diamond, 

 muslin, and peacocks ; an attempt at explanation of our manu- 

 factures, usually elicits the expression, " Truly ! ye are gods ! " 



When about to leave the Makondo, one of my men had dreamed 

 that Mosantu was shut up a prisoner in a stockade ; this dream 

 depressed the spirits of the whole party, and when I came out of 



